How to Choose a Fiber Laser Cutting Machine? Detail about Fiber Laser Cutter

How to choose a fiber laser cutting machine?

 

In recent years, fiber laser cutting technology has been more and more widely used in the field of metal cutting. Fiber technology has also developed rapidly. Now 30KW 40Kw or even higher power lasers are sold on the market. However, many users still have various questions about how to choose a fiber laser cutting machine. How to correctly choose a fiber laser cutting machine can be considered from the following aspects:

 

1. Business scope: metalmaterials and thickness

 

First of all, we must consider our business scope, the thickness of the cutting material, what materials need to be cut, and other factors. Those determine the power and working area of the equipment. At present, the power of fiber laser cutting machines on the market ranges from 1500W-40KW, and the size of the working area can be customized by manufacturers according to customer needs. The common formats on the market are 1500x3000mm, 1500x4000mm, 1500x6000mm, 2000x4000mm, 2500x6000mm, etc. It is generally recommended to choose a universal working area, which can greatly reduce the production cost. Fiber laser cutting machines are mainly used to cut metal materials, including stainless steel, carbon steel, galvanized plates etc. Brass, copper, aluminum, gold and silver materials are high-reflective materials, with the same power, the thickness that can be cut is much thinner than stainless steel and carbon steel. The application of fiber laser to high-reflective materials has not been fundamentally solved. Laser source manufacturers add optical isolators inside laser source to block high reflection. So if your processing materials include high-reflective materials, be sure to confirm the thickness that can be cut. Please refer to the detailed thickness and power table.

 

2. Model selection.

 

After confirming the laser power and working area, let’s check the laser machine design or outlook. If the power of the product you need is below 3KW, you can choose an open type fiber laser with single table. If there are many cutting tasks every day and you want to improve efficiency, you can choose auto pallet changer(2 tables). If you are in Europe, 90% customers choose the sealed type. Once you choose sealed type, it will basically be equipped with 2 tables, which is easier to load metal sheet. Generally speaking, fiber laser cutting machines are industrial machines, not household machines. The machine is not particularly small in size and requires additional accessories. Therefore, you can ask footprint of the machine from the supplier in the early stage to see where it is more suitable to put it in your workshop. If the supplier cannot provide these basic information, it shows that the supplier strength is not quite good and you need to be cautious.

 

3. Cost calculation

 

Before buying a laser cutter, we need to calculate the cost too. If you plan to buy a fiber laser cutting machine from China, then the purchase cost you need to consider includes: machine price + transportation cost + destination port fees + customs clearance fees + import tariffs + land transportation fees from the port to the destination. You can also ask the supplier to directly quote a door-to-door fee for calculation.

 

After calculating the purchase cost, we also need to consider the operating cost of the machine. The operating cost of the fiber cutting machine includes: machine power consumption + gas consumption cost + cost of replacing wearing parts + plate cost. The power consumption and gas consumption of the machine can be calculated by the supplier. In addition, the cutting software system can export the cutting report, which will estimate the cost of cutting, and is also a better tool.

 

4. Supplier selection

 

I think that whether you choose a large or small factory, the most important thing is to choose the right one. Seller and buyer needs balance too.

 

4.1 From the power

 

If you want a 1500W machine, the technology in this power range is very mature, and large factories may not like small orders, so you can choose small and medium-sized enterprises for 6kw and below power. There are many big companies in China also outsource their small power laser machine order to other factories. You feel you buy a machine from a big company, actually may not produce in their factory. If you want to choose a machine with 12kw and above power or with special function(not standard order), then the safest way is to choose a larger and professional company.

 

4.2 From the quality of the machine

 

There are many components of the cutting machine, which can easily cause cost differences. I will talk about this part in Part 5. You can also ask for machine pictures, videos, and diagrams, etc. of the machine in the factory workshop to judge whether the supplier is professional.

 

4.3 Service

 

Quick response is very important. Especially when there are some problems with the machine, time is very precious. We can pay attention to the supplier’s response speed from the initial communication. If it is very slow before the order is completed, the response speed after the transaction will not be faster than this. After we choose the company we like, we need the seller offer us cutting parameter for different material thickness before delivery and must be tested with the machine we ordered, not a ready cutting parameter table.

 

5. Composition of the fiber optic cutting machine

 

The fiber optic cutting machine consists of 8 major parts: machine body, beam, laser source, cutting head, water chiller, control system, transmission system and auxiliary system. Some of these parts play a very important role in choosing the machine.

 

5.1 Machine body

 

Machine body is like the foundation of a house. If the foundation is not good, the house is very dangerous. Therefore, machine body is important for whole machine. And machine body doesn’t have brand, no model number, even we can not find any standard requirements in the market for how to produce machine body. So this is the part that is most likely to make differences. A good machine body can make sure machine running sable. Stability is the important for a machine. The laser machine power above 6KW should choose plate welding machine body and thickness should be 10mm or more. The more powerful the machine, the higher the requirements for the machine body. Confirm this carefully with the supplier. If you want to know the process of bed production, you can click here.

 

 

5.2 Beam

 

After market testing during those years, aviation aluminum beams are popular now. The advantage of aluminum beam is that they are light in weight and the machine is easier to speed up, but this is only one of the reasons that affect the speed.

 

5.3 Laser source

 

In the Chinese market, the common laser source brand are IPG from Germany, Raycus and Max from China. The price difference between Raycus and Max is not big, and the price of IPG is very high. The laser source produced in China with a power of 20Kw and below power are relatively mature and can be chosen with confidence. If you want easy maintenance, you can choose the Raycus CE version. You should also pay attention to your cutting thickness and choose the appropriate core diameter of laser source. For example, thin core diameter of laser source is suit for cutting thin metal plate, if you choose a proper core diameter laser source, the cutting speed with 3kw laser source is faster than 6kw. So choose a suitable laser source model is important too, not only care about laser source brand.

 

5.4 Cutting head

 

The more mature cutting heads are BOCI brand and Raytools brand in China market. Now BOCI brand has fully covered all power range, and the software of cypcut is also the most mature, so choosing these two brands is still a safe choice. BOCI is from Cypcut company too. They developed very faster during those years. You also can check their website to learn some by yourself. It should be noted that all consumables of whole machine are on the cutting head. Confirm the consumables with the supplier and order some or ask the supplier to help give some accessories for free, such as protective lenses, ceramic rings and nozzles.

 

5.5 Water chiller

 

People are prefer to comparing machine body, guide rails, rack motors, etc., and water chiller is the spare part that easy to ignore. But the water chiller plays a very important role in the machine. The water chiller is used to cool the laser source and cutting head, and it is an indispensable component. If you only pay attention to choose a very good laser source, but ignore water chiller. When the water cooler has issue and the machine will not be able to run too. The good quality chiller brand includes Tongfei brand, S&A brand and Hanli brand(suit for 12kw and below.). In the future, maybe there will have more other good brand.

 

5.6 Transmission system

 

The transmission system includes guide rails, racks, reducers, motors, etc. The brand and precision of these components are important, and the installation method is also important. Strict installation standards can improve the running speed and cutting accuracy of the machine.

 

5.7 Software

 

Bochu(cypcut) is a very mature software. Low power has Cypone, medium power has cypcut, Cyocut E, high power has Hypcut, etc. In addition, it can match nesting software. Cypnest is the software for plate cutting and pipe cutting nesting software is Tubest.

 

5.8 Auxiliary system

 

The auxiliary system includes: gas, voltage regulator, transformer, air conditioner. The gas required for cutting is oxygen, nitrogen or clean air. Nitrogen is used for cutting stainless steel, brass, and aluminum, and oxygen is used for cutting carbon steel. If you want to use air, you need to buy an air compressor, a dryer, and a gas bottle. The dryer is used to produce clean air. If the local voltage is unstable, a voltage stabilizer is required. If the local voltage is not match with the machine voltage, a transformer is required. If the local temperature is always above 40 degrees or too cold, it is best to use air condition.

 

The above is the basic knowledge about fiber laser cutting machines. If you want to know more, please feel free to contact us.